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Avocado and broccoli pesto

Pasta pesto makes me think of living in Hackney. Of taking the 55 bus home from work (because I couldn’t afford the tube). It reminds me of getting off the bus early at Diss St, picking up pesto, pasta & chilled coronas at the corner shop and going to see two beautiful friends. Their flat always felt so much more grown up & together. Their jobs were more important and exciting.

Their nights out were what urban stories are made from. Whenever things were rocky in my own life, I would pile into their flat and we would eat pesto pasta, drink beer & try to widen my film knowledge.

What I would give for corona & chats with those two right now but I would make the pesto, because this version is even more delicious & also because it contains avocado which would amuse them both.

This sauce is good. Really really good. It’s rich and creamy, but at the same time it isn’t heavy. By switching out the usual oil for avocado you get a sauce which is packed with good fats, loaded with vitamin C and most importantly it sticks perfectly to pasta (or courgetti for that matter). The broccoli base doesn’t mask the basil but adds an earthiness as well as packing in even more vegetables. There are no nuts in this but you could add in pine nuts or cashews if you wanted. There is also no salt, making it baby friendly, so salt your portion as needed. If your little one is just starting with pasta then use chopped vermicelli for spoon feeding or easy to pick up fusilli as finger food. If they aren’t on pasta yet then you could easily let them just eat a spoonful of the pesto or stir it in with pureed potato. I imagine it is delicious too on toast topped with perfectly ripe tomatoes, or mixed with hummus a top a baked potato. It will keep in the fridge, in a sealed jar, for five days so enjoy experimenting with it. For the record, I recognise that this is hardly a pesto as the ingredients haven’t been pounded together. It’s also hardly a Genovese sauce as it doesn’t contain hard cheese or pine nuts. But it is a creamy, basily sauce of deliciousness that takes minutes to create & will feed a family. Enjoy

Ingredients (makes 6 servings)
1 head broccoli

1 ripe avocado

1 large handful basil

1 tbsp lemon juice

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp pepper (optional)

Method
Cut the broccoli into florets & boil until well cooked

Place into a food processor with all the other ingredients (avocado at the bottom)

Blend until you have a thick creamy sauce

Stir through cooked pasta

Enjoy

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Beitzels – the beigel, pretzel hybrid

First came the Cronut, then the duffin….and now we have the beitzel! My hybrid of a beigel and a pretzel. These bad boys are a seriously good thing!

Our baby is definitely half Bavarian. I say Bavarian rather than German because she was born in Munich, during Oktoberfest time & her absolute favourite food are bretzel. Pretzel are a go to here. For breakfast split & slathered with butter, on the go during the day, for “Brot zeit” dinner (bread & cold cuts) and of course the supersize version to help mop up beer.

If the little one is being particularly cute you can guarantee that somebody in a bakery or cafe will hand her one having dusted off the salt. I have to let you in on a secret though, I don’t like pretzel. It’s the distinctive lye taste that I don’t like. Lye is used to give pretzel their traditional brown colour and you can replicate it at home but it’s pretty dangerous as it involves sodium hydroxide, gloves & eye protection…..which makes me question whether it is a good thing to be ingesting. I also wanted to make a pretzel that was simple, that shunned the buttery dough and all the added salt.

These beitzels are a pretzel -beigel hybrid. They are made from a simple risen dough which is then shaped & boiled, sprinkled with seeds and then baked till golden brown.

These beitzels have the shape of a pretzel & the delicious doughiness, but they also have the satisfying crunchy chew of a traditional boiled beigel. The little one had one this morning, we had some last night warm out the oven, dipped in sweet potato hummus. They are great spread with jam or made into a sandwich and if you are celebrating Oktoberfest then I’m sure that they paid well with any beer too!

Ps- if you need some help shaping your beitzels that check out my video on my instagram page yolandanaturally

Ingredients
450g strong bread flour

1 tsp salt

7g instant yeast

220ml slightly warm water

1 tbsp maple syrup

1.5 ltr water

3 tbsp mixed seeds to top (optional)

Method
Place the flour into a large bowl

Place the salt on one side of the bowl & the yeast on the other

Add in 3/4 of the water and stir the dough to bring it all together

Combine well, adding more water as you need

Tip out onto a lightly floured surface & knead the dough for 10mins

Once smooth, place back into the bowl, cover & pop in a warm spot for 1 hour

Once the dough has doubled in size tip out & split into 12 portions

Roll the portions into long sausages and then shape into pretzel

Bring the water to the boil, add in the maple syrup

Place the pretzels, a few at a time, into the simmering water

Cook the pretzels on both sides for a minute & then remove with a slotted spoon

Place them onto a lined baking rack

Sprinkle with seeds

Place into a preheated (190C) oven & bake until golden

Enjoy!

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YNBO- Tigernut buttermilk pancakes with coconut butter

We just got back from the most beautiful weekend in Cambridge. We have come back reinvigorated, filled with friendship & our kitchen has a few new ingredients to boot.

We got back just in time for this weeks adventures in the tent too, and last night was all about the batter. Was it the first time ever that the ovens were only used in one out of the three challenges? And also is it a bake if it’s not in an oven? Anyway, Great British Batter Off saw the bakers (batterers sounds oh so very wrong) tackle identical Yorkshire puddings, lace pancakes and finally churros. There were some great flavor combinations but personally I have to admit that I missed the baking bit last night. Still, it was fate that pancakes were a challenge & I can home from Cambridge with a bag of unusual flour that I have been itching to use!

I decided for my YNBO batter challenge to make plant based buttermilk pancakes using an ingredient that is totally new to me: tigernuts. Tiger nuts are not actually nuts, they are in fact a tuber & they used to be sold in sweet shops in the 1940s & 50s. They are rich in iron and have a nutrient profile that mirrors…well, breast milk. They are also a pre-biotic too.

They taste creamy, rich & slightly nutty, similar to a cashew. Thanks to a wonderful friend, I am the proud owner of 2kg of tigernut flour & with batter week upon us it seemed like the perfect time to test it out. Tiger nut flour looks not dissimilar to spelt flour. It is nut brown and very finely milled. These pancakes are somehow fluffy & thick and yet dense at the same time. They remind me of buckwheat pancakes. The tiger nuts provide a rich taste and the baking powder gives them lift. The homemade buttermilk helps keep them light & moist (sorry there is no other word!). I added lemon zest to the mix but you don’t have to and these could easily be a savoury base, topped with pesto & roasted vegetables or even made into single bite canapes hosting any toppings you fancy.

The coconut maple butter is inspired by LA and a delicious breakfast at The Butchers Daughter. With the baby asleep in the ergo, I perched on a stool & devoured buckwheat pancakes with berries & melting coconut butter. I practically inhaled them, pausing only to lick stray crumbs off the little ones head. I’ve never had such great pancakes since but these tigernut ones have arrived and are bringing a little bite of Abbot Kinney into our kitchen.Inspired by LA, created in Munich, prompted by Welford Park and facilitated by Cambridge. These are seriously international pancakes.

Ingredients (makes 8 pancakes)
1 cup (250g) tigernut flour

1 cup (250g) spelt flour (or gf flour)

Juice 1 lemon

1 tsp baking powder

1.5 cup (180ml) oat or other milk

1 tsp apple cider vinegar

Method
Place the lemon juice into the milk & set aside for 10 mins

Place the flour & baking powder into a large dish

Add the lemony milk & apple cider vinegar and stir well

Leave to sit for 10mins

Ladle the mixture into a hot greased pan letting the pancakes bubble on the upside before flipping over

Ingredients (Coconut maple butter)
8 tbsp desiccated coconut

1 tsp maple syrup

Method
Place the coconut into a food processor or spice grinder

On a medium setting allow to process

Scrape down the sides every minute to keep incorporating

Keep processing till you have a creamy butter

Stir in the maple syrup & serve

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Tamari roasted nuts

Oktoberfest is almost upon us and it feels like the city is in countdown mode. I am not quite there yet. Firstly, it is September, and I hate to point this out to the organizers, but it is called OCTOBER-fest. I just don’t feel ready for it, or the hordes of people about to descend on the city but a part of me is excited. I love love love the fact that everyone suddenly wears lederhosen and dirndls…to work, to school, to the office. It feels so colorful and happy somehow. I also really love that everyone is in love with the city. Its like a big gingerbread heart surrounds Munich and everyone just wants to show off all that this place has to offer. There is a buzz in the air, the streets feel busier, the beer makes people friendlier and chattier.

I also have to confess that we didn’t go last year. It was our second month living here but I was 40 weeks pregnant and we were in the midst of a heatwave. You also have to walk a pretty long way to get to the wiesn and I just couldn’t face it. Instead I lived vicariously through our friends stories. I admired their dirndls and laughed at their crazy drunken antics. We did sneak down very early one morning, way before it opened so that I could walk round and see the huge tents. Amongst all the tales, I have to admit that I was impressed by how much people consume. Personally I couldn’t drink 5litres of anything and especially not beer. I read that on average people consume 800kcal an hour at Octoberfest, which makes sense with all the beer, pretzels, and pancakes! To get me into the spirit of the upcoming festivities I thought I would make this week all about the snacks. Snacks that you can pair with beer (or not) and snacks that are slightly more nutritionally dense than what the tents have to offer

These tamari roasted nuts are seriously addictive. They are rich and earthy, salty and crunchy. They are delicious on their own or crushed on top of a buddha bowl. I used cashews but you can use any nuts you like. Let the beer fest count down begin.

Ingredients
300g cashews

3 tbsp tamari

0.5tsp chilli oil

Method
Place the cashews into a jar with the tamari and oil, cover and leave overnight to soak

The next day, preheat the over to 180C

Spread the cashews out on a lined baking tray and roast in the oven for 20mins

Leave to cool before enjoying

Will keep in a jar for up to 10days

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Three ingredient chocolate truffles

Sometimes the sweetest things are the simplest things. These chocolate date truffles only need three ingredients. I make these all the time. I think most of my friends have tried them, my clients all make them now with ease and there is always a stash of them in our fridge. They taste amazing, they are ready in 5 minutes and you can customize them in so many ways. The basic recipe needs only dates, raw cocoa and walnuts. By grinding down the walnuts and cocoa into a powder you can use the dates to bind them together. You are making the easiest energy ball in the world. It is packed with iron and healthy Omegas. Dates give you long lasting energy rather than a sugar spike making these a perfect pre training snack.

I like to add in fresh ginger to the walnuts and cocoa and simply blend it down with them. You could add in supplements that work for you such as spirulina, maca or lucuma. A tiny splash of espresso, orange zest or a pinch of cinnamon taste great too.

Day to day we eat them like this. Just the simple combination of three ingredients, but if I am making them as a gift or as a after dinner treat I dip them in melted raw chocolate and then roll them in flaked almonds, cocoa or cocoa nibs. They make a really lovely gift, piled into a jar and sealed with a ribbon.

Ingredients
12 walnut halves
4 medjool dates
2 tsp raw cocoa

Method
Pulse the walnuts & the cocoa in a food processor until you have a fine crumb
Add in the dates & pulse until a sticky dough forms
Roll the dough into balls & either place in the fridge or dip in melted raw chocolate first and roll in toppings of your choice

To make the raw chocolate all you need to do is melt 50g cocoa butter with 3tbsp raw cocoa

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